The best car maintenance and repair manuals?
September 3, 2010 by admin
Filed under Car Maintenance and Repair
Years ago I bought a manual about my first car (a Volvo) that had all kinds of exploded view drawings, pictures, and circuit diagrams of all of the different components of the car and I want to buy something similar for the car I have now. Do you know which series of books would be best and is this the Chilton Auto Repair Manuals that I am thinking of?
well they are one of the best
you canjust type into searchbox
repair manual year and model
ive used both chilton and haynes…both r ok the chiltons i like better…the best????the car makers manual very costly
Chilton or Haynes repair manuals
The best would be the manufacturer shop manual, but, Chilton’s is good enough for the weekend warrior.
Haynes and Chilton’s Total Car Care manuals are pretty much the only ones who concentrate on a specific vehicle, or at least a closely related family of vehicles (badge engineered). This is the best bang for the buck for people who only work on 1 or 2 cars that they own. If you check out 1 of each for the same vehicle, you’ll see that Chilton’s tend to have about 50% more pages, and more diagnostic info, as opposed to just how to take things out and put them back in.
http://www.delmarlearning.com/Browse_Catalog.aspx?Cat1ID=AU&Cat2ID=CHM&Cat3ID=CHM07
Most professional oriented manuals cover all Domestic, or all Asian, or all European cars, and for later models, that alone amounts to multiple volumes to cover all the different subsystems in a car. And also separate books for Trucks, and another batch for SUV’s. If you had say, a European car, an American Truck, and an Asian SUV, you’d be looking at probably over $1,000 easy for Mitchell’s, Motor, or Chilton’s Professional series. The latter 2 also market consumer versions, with less of the advanced stuff and detail.
A couple other options in the non-paper realm. Autozone.com has online repair guides for free that cover most of what you’ll find in Haynes or Chilton’s TCC. They cover most American makes, and many foreign ones, as long as it’s not a real new one. Also, Alldata, Mitchell’s, and Chilton’s all have online subscription services, where you can access professional grade info for one single vehicle for about $15-$20 a year.
http://www.alldatadiy.com/
http://www.eautorepair.net/Marketing/Default.asp
http://www.chiltondiy.com/default.aspx